Beer of the Day: Dale’s Pale Ale by Oskar Blues Brewery
By Greg B. A lot of the time you’ve seen me post about beers from the bottle. Or beers on draft from a bar (one day hopefully I’ll have a tap at my house!). Today however, I’m writing about one of the great all-purpose canned beers. Dale’s Pale Ale, from Oskar Blues brewery in Colorado. Yes, you see correctly in the picture. A canned beer from a craft brewery. I’m not going to pour this one out into a glass, since most of the time you’re going to be drinking from the can anyway. Oskar blues makes some great beer (the ten-fidy imp. stout is fantastic), but this pale ale is a great craft beer, canned for easy transportation. If you’re hiking, canoeing, tubing, boating or anything on the go and don’t want to carry around oddly shaped and heavy glass bottles, these lighter and easy stacking cans come in handy. But, what about the beer inside?
Dale’s Pale ale is a good example of an American pale ale. It’s pretty assertive on the hops and bitters but backs up these hops with a good bready malt backbone. It’s fairly carbonated and very refreshing in the hotter weather. The bitters on the finish are stronger than some other typical pale ales, but you need to remember, this brewery is in the American west, and those folks enjoy some hops! The beer finishes crisp and leaves you with the aroma of pine and citrus, though a bit heavier on the pine I feel than the citrus. This is a great beer to keep in a 6 pack in the fridge for company or for yourself! 6.6%abv, 3.7/5
Yeah, Dale’s is very good. They definitely push the Centennial hops for that piney edge. I first had it on draft at Bonaroo 2007 and was quite taken with it.
Oskar Blues is the pioneer in craft-canning, but many smaller breweries from the Rockies and West are beginning to transition to cans primarily for the much lower transportation costs (and, thereby, lower carbon footprint) given the far lighter-weight nature of cans compared to bottles. As a result, I think that we on the the East coast will start to see great regional West coast brewers like New Belgium, Bells, Deschutes etc. start to be shipped here more readily if the brewers think they can keep from over-blowing their production levels/quality control.
Hooray Beer! Hooray Oskar Blues! Hooray Old Chub!
Nice review. Probably one of the most robust pale ales I’ve ever had. Have you tried their Old Chub? I keep thinking about it, but reaching for Ten FIDY instead…
I actually have an Old Chub in the fridge, but havent opened it yet… so, review pending! You’re right though, the Ten Fidy is a great beer. I will normally drink it with dessert if I’m out at a restaurant, it goes better with most desserts than most wines
[...] Greg B. Given that I’ve loved the Dale’s Pale ale, and the Ten Fidy Imperial stout from Oskar blues brewery, I saw a can of their Old Chub in the [...]